Netanyahu to consider 'next steps' in Gaza war amid domestic pressure
Benjamin Netanyahu is under increasing pressure domestically, after 22 months of war have failed to deliver on his two key objectives: returning the remaining Israeli hostages and destroying Hamas.
There are 50 Israelis still held captive in Gaza, but only 20 are believed to still be alive.
The criticism of the prime minister and his government comes amid growing international condemnation about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Palestinian health authorities said another five people died of starvation and 24 were killed trying to seek aid.
Israel continues to deny starvation has taken hold in Gaza, despite the overwhelming body of evidence and opinion stating the enclave is in the throes of what the UN has called the "worst case scenario of famine".
"We must continue to stand together and fight together to achieve all our war objectives: the defeat of the enemy, the release of our hostages, and the assurance that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," Mr Netanyahu told ministers during a government meeting on Monday.
"Later this week, I will convene the cabinet to instruct the Israel Defense Forces on how to achieve these three objectives — all of them, without exception."
Israeli media is reporting that the military's top brass have issued warnings to the government that the current mission, called 'Operation Gideon's Chariots", has run its course.
There are concerns within the IDF that troops have seized as much ground in Gaza as possible, without risking the lives of the remaining hostages.
There is further speculation the new directive to the military may be to ratchet up Israel's aerial bombardment of the strip, given ceasefire and hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas have been locked in a stalemate for months.
More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed during the war, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry.
Israel disputes those figures but does not provide data of its own to refute them, and the United Nations backs the Palestinian data as the best reflection of the scale of loss in the strip.
Protesters took to the streets outside the prime minister's offices in Jerusalem to voice their anger at the continuation of the war.
Over the weekend, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) released videos of two of the remaining hostages, Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David.
Their emaciated appearances have fuelled fury across Israel, with many Israelis taking aim at the government for refusing to agree to a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas which would end the war and bring the captives home.
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar has instead blamed the international media and world leaders for failing to give the plight of hostages enough attention.
"Hamas and Islamic Jihad are using the starvation and torture of hostages as part of a deliberate and well-planned sadistic propaganda campaign," he said in Jerusalem.
"These organisations also planned the starvation campaign of lies together."
Scenes of utter chaos have continued across Gaza, as starving Palestinians jostled for whatever food they could secure.
In central Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians sprinted towards pallets of aid dropped by Arab and European planes flying over Gaza.
"It is dangerous, full of death, and it's all humiliation," Deir al-Baah resident Assad al-Qaraan told the news agency Reuters.
"Just 30 per cent of people are able to receive aid and the rest do not receive anything.
"What follows is infighting and stabbing — thank them for bringing aid, but this aid is full of danger and death, it all leads to death."
Some witnesses said a pallet landed on a tent in Zawaida.
"We were waiting for the airdrop, the aid landed on the tent and person inside looked to be killed, God knows," Yusuf Fleifel said.
"The man went to the hospital, God knows if he was a martyr or injured."
Palestinian health authorities said 94 people had been killed over a 24-hour period from Sunday into Monday in Gaza, and 24 of them were seeking aid.
There were reports from local medics of more shootings near distribution facilities run by the US and Israeli backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Israel's military denied shooting at one of the sites in comments to Reuters, and GHF said "distributions at all sites ran smoothly today, helping protect all civilians present".
Benjamin Netanyahu had demanded the Red Cross be allowed to deliver aid and medical support to Israeli hostages, suggesting they were starving while their captors were well fed.
Hamas responded saying it would be prepared to facilitate such requests, but only if all humanitarian corridors into Gaza were reopened — arguing the hostages were experiencing the same conditions as the broader Palestinian population.
The Israeli agency responsible for coordinating aid deliveries into Gaza, COGAT, said 160 trucks entered the strip on Sunday, while a further 200 loads were picked up and distributed inside Gaza by the UN and other humanitarian agencies.
Around 136 pallets of aid were also dropped on Sunday by countries including Jordan, the UAE, Egypt, Germany, France and Belgium.
But humanitarian agencies insist what is getting into the strip is a drop in the ocean compared to what's needed to tackle starvation, after months of aid restrictions.
ABC/wires
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